i went in to the shop where i plan to re-do my exhaust, and told the guy my plans...and when i told him i wanted to put headers on he quickly responded with raised eyebrows and a devilish smirk...he told me that all he has seen with headers is problems and he strongly recommends staying away...now from what i understand, this guy is very good at what he does and very knowledgable in the field...why would he be pushing me away from headers when all i can see on this forum is good things about em?

 

i think you should ask him

 

Find a different shop...

 

he probably just wanted to do the exhaust but not the headers because sometime its really hard

 

u should title it....headers=badASS....i just put some pacesetter long tubes/ceramic....on with the matching pacesetter ypipe....if u do this make sure u do NOT go without cats....I had 2 magnaflow hi flow cats in...I drove it 1 day without the cats...NO LOW END TORQUE!!!!! at all......after the hi flow cats...it's gravy..luv it....I did however have all kinds of trouble codes witch i just posted bout last night......fixed them today...when they installed the headers sumhow they hit one and dented it actually...and it was making the truck run like crap...put a new one in and wammo.....good to go. do it man...they are awesome

 

i mean they hit one of my 02 sensors...sorry

 

He obviously did not want to be bothered. Adding headers is a key step if you plan on heavily modding your vehicle with plans on making some real HP & Torque gains. Many higher end cams list that headers, as well as a CAI and exhaust must be in place before adding their cam.

Now, that's not saying that there is NO maintenance involved with headers. First of all, they must be installed correctly and the bolts must be torqued and then re-torqued when hot (and of course, if you over do it, you're in deep doo-doo with our aluminum heads). Then they need to be periodically checked, at least at every oil change. But that's about it. In over a year and a half, I've only had to re-tighten two bolts, and at that only about a half turn of a wrench or so.

Sounds to me like your guy is kinda just into the old basic exhaust & CAI with maybe a tuner kinda tech. Maybe the aluminum heads scare him...

 

yeah...ik after reading all of this stuff about headers that i definitely wanted a set of LT's ...then this guy kinda shoots me down...but i would rather take the opinions of you guys who actually have them...one more question tho

(im just running with info that i understand to be true...im no whiz when it comes to vehicles)

since i understand the 03 Rams only have two o2 sensors and one cat...if and WHEN i get these headers would it be totally fine to run a cat on each...or would it just be better to keep the stock cat and do whatever is required to run that...?

 

I was not aware that the '03s only had a single cat. If that's the case, there would be no need for a second one and I'm not a huge fan of a "true dual" setup in a truck anyhow. If you are gonna go LT's you are pretty much gonna have to redo most of the exhaust and relocate your cat anyway.

If it were me, I'd put in the LTs, then a "Y" pipe, then the cat (you'll have to lengthen the O2 sensor wires, but that's easy), then a one into two muffler and out to dual tail pipes. The joined section between the "Y" and the muffler will help keep some backflow in the system for low end torque...

 

lol !!! i was gonna say ....sh**T! i have those on the way , they are back ordered from jba lol. well im glad the news is still good. From what i understand , headersare not too badof an install...i never install, or do service on my truck though so.....here is a question..do you have too pull the engine to put the headers on , or can you do it as is and push some things out of the way?